


Blackbirds

by morrezela



Series: The Fairy Tale 'Verse [12]
Category: Supernatural RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Magic, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-08-08
Updated: 2013-08-08
Packaged: 2017-12-22 18:46:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,195
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/916744
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morrezela/pseuds/morrezela
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Fairytale AU: Jared has a visit from the queen.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blackbirds

**Author's Note:**

> This is the twelfth installment of the Sorcerer-Carpenter verse.
> 
> Warnings: Curses, mentions of OC death and politics.
> 
> Reading Staircases, Portraits, Journeys, Hopes, Betrayals, Rescues, Homes, Memories, Duties, Returns and Mirrors first is highly advisable.
> 
>  
> 
> A/N: This was written for Day Four of my Twelve Days of Christmas Meme.
> 
> All mistakes you find are my own.

The walls of Jared’s room seemed to close in on him. But leaving his chambers would only lead to being surrounded by guards. He would rather have his jail be made of stone than flesh and blood, so he stayed as he was.

If he looked out the window of his room, he could see the damnable tree sitting over the now frozen pool of water in the palace’s gardens. Four blackbirds were roosting in it, calling back and forth to each other with happy songs. It confused Jared how they could be so content to be with something that had wrought such evil.

He wished that he had never seen the tree, but then again, Jared had wished many things in his life. Few were the wishes that had been granted.

Baron Morgan had taken his time travelling to the palace. The waiting had felt interminable, but that was nothing compared to the hours that Jared had spent worrying about the sorcerer’s diagnosis. Perhaps there was something wrong with Jared after all. Though he did not feel evil, perhaps he was the harbinger of something horrible.

Morgan had seemed quite displeased with Jared’s inability to utter a sound. While Jared felt that way himself, the crease of worry in the baron’s forehead had been more disconcerting. Perhaps it was a sign that Jared was about to become some sort of creature, wiped of all humanity.

A soft knock sounded in the room before the door opened. Of all of the people who Jared thought might walk through the door, the queen had not been one of them. But there she was, her pale skin as radiant as Jared’s memory claimed it to be.

“Jared,” her voice soft as she spoke a half step away from bleating in its vibrato. Jensen’s voice never sounded like that. His voice was strong, human like his father’s.

Jared’s mouth moved to form the words, “My Lady,” but nothing came out. Frustration boiled inside of him, but all he could do to express it was exhale loudly.

“Poor boy,” the queen murmured as she pressed a delicate hand to Jared’s face. “You always were so earnest. I told Harrison as much when you were little, getting into mischief with Jensen and never quite succeeding at anything.”

Jared blushed and looked away. He could not defend himself because she was his queen, but also because she was right. He was a good carpenter, but he had never been destined to be a great one. There was little reason that Jared had been selected to work at the palace. At the time he had only felt himself lucky and had hoped that he would learn something magnificent in his apprenticeship.

Looking back, it was likely that he had only been selected because of his relationship with Jensen. Though the world had forgotten about the young prince, the hearts of its people had not.

“Jared,” Queen Jenhaia’s voice became sterner, “I need to speak with you about some things.”

Jared focused his gaze back on his queen’s face. While he could not make a sound to retort, he knew that ‘speaking with’ truly meant ‘speaking to’ in the world of the palace.

“Morgan was uncertain of what you were when he tested you. Of course, he has now come to the conclusion that he should have. The tree, it planted a part of itself inside of your body when it killed you. Your… corpse for lack of a better word housed it until it could grow again. When it came time for it to burst back through the ground, it dragged you with it.”

Unbidden remembrances of dirt abrading his skin and the horrible feeling of not being able to breathe assaulted Jared’s mind. He shook his head to clear it, but all that did was make his eyes focus back on his queen’s sympathetic face.

“You are bound to it,” she said softly.

Jared shook his head in denial, fierce and strong even as he knew her words to be truth. Had he not been unsuccessful in ridding himself of the cursed plant?

“You are a good man, courageous.”

“But?” Jared’s made his mouth form the question as clearly as he could.

“But there are few things in this world that can part you from such magic. Much as the tree is content to float above any pool of water, I do not think that the palace gardens are a wise spot for it, do you?”

Conceding to her point was something that Jared was loathe to do. He did not want to go out and spend his life in the wilderness, forever cursed to be alone. But there was little else that he could come up with that would ease that pain. The only person that he wanted to be with was Jensen, and Jensen was destined to become king. Wandering the wilds was not in Jensen’s future.

Tears stung at the back of Jared’s eyes as he tried not to feel angry or bitter about being sent away. He did not regret giving his life to save Jensen’s. Jensen was his prince and future king. More than that, Jensen was his love. But returning to life? That Jared was very much angry over. Better he be left to rot in the ground than suffer eternal punishment for loving the wrong man.

“You and Jensen, both so prone to melodrama,” the queen said with an air of amusement. “I did not say that you had to leave, Jared.”

The echo of a laugh that huffed through Jared’s lungs was disbelieving, but he could not keep it from escaping. It was disrespectful to show such a response before his queen, but he found he did not care.

“Morgan and my husband are debating what to do about you. To punish an honored hero would be cowardly in the extreme, yet to have such a source of power so close by would be disastrous. They are good men, strong in the arts of war, but they are not Veldeer. They are not my people, and their knowledge in certain areas is lacking.”

Jared’s eyebrows arched in question.

Queen Jenhaia laughed and perched on the edge of the dresser next to the wash basin. It was not a regal pose, and it made her look more like a young girl than a revered queen.

“Though they now know most of the tales of the tree, they are also missing some of the most important aspects of magic and its bonds. Such solutions should be obvious to them, but I fear that my son gains his rashness from his father. I plan for Harrison to be well and truly incapable of changing the outcome of this entire affair. The best way to do that is to not inform him of the plans until they are completed.”

Plotting against his king still went against Jared’s very fiber. His temper rose even as he stood stock still. What could he do?

“Oh, Jared,” the queen laughed again, “you are so very noble. Jensen’s heart always did beat true.”

Jared narrowed his eyes at his queen.

Jenhaia did not appear to be threatened. “Curses and magic and all of those silly things, they are all susceptible to other, deeper powers. Things such as love, for instance.”

“Love?” Jared’s lips repeated dumbly.

“Yes, well, I’m assuming you and Jensen have already had your first kiss? Do not answer that, a mother does not need to know the sordid details of her son’s affairs.”

Jared scowled at her. He would very much like to have an affair with her son. It irritated him that he had not had the chance to sample the fruit that it he was assumed to have tasted.

“If Jensen was to receive the word that Morgan has declared you to be you, no amount of soldiers would keep him from coming to your side. Harrison might think that Jensen is not like his mother, but our hearts rule us. I know the look that was in my child’s eyes when he thought you dead. I know the grief that ruled his soul without you. If you do not return his affection in equal measure, it is best that you be gone.”

Jared shook his head in denial. If there was one thing he was certain of, it was his affections.

“Jensen has children now,” she told him bluntly.

Shock rippled through Jared’s core. Illogical hurt followed it. Of course Jensen had children. He needed heirs. Even if Jared had not died, there was every reason for Jensen to have been with another.

“Wife?” Jared mouthed even though he did not want to do so. It was unlikely that Jensen sired his children out of wedlock. He was not that sort of man, and Jared could not, would not be a concubine or whore hidden in the palace’s rooms like a specter.

“Dead,” the queen said, “which is unfortunate for her and rather convenient for you.”

Jared shook his head again, this time with fervor. He had nothing to do with the woman’s death.

“I do not accuse you of it, but there will be those who will,” the queen said. “I want you to know this. I also want you to know that I will expect you to care for Jensen’s children as your own. You do not love them now, and I understand that you cannot. But I will not tolerate any division or separation. If you choose to be with him, then you choose to be his spouse in all things.”

Jared nodded. Heirs were important to the throne, and Jensen could not be expected to be a distant father. Jared would not love him if Jensen was that type of man. But Jared’s willingness to be with Jensen in all ways did not solve the problem of the tree that Jared was bound to.

Unable to voice his thoughts, Jared gestured at the tree outside his window. The merry blackbirds calling to each other in their loud voices were still happily flitting from branch to branch. They seemed oblivious to the danger that all other animals sensed.

“The tree is not evil, Jared. Those who wield its power are the ones who are to blame,” Jenhaia told him as her gaze rested on the tree. “Blackbirds are perhaps the smartest of them all. They are not pretty, nor are their songs fetching. But they have their purpose in life, as does that tree.”

Jared huffed in annoyance. He did not need a lecture on the utter neutrality and vulnerability of the damned tree. He needed to be rid of it.

“True love is the most powerful force in magic. I know that it sounds trite, but it is true. Of course, true love’s first kiss is quite powerful indeed, but I do suspect we are beyond using that, yes?”

Jared flushed and looked away. His first and only kiss with Jensen had been a farewell. There had been a quality of romance to it, but it had been melancholic.

“How do you feel about scandal?” the queen asked.

Jared frowned and looked back at her.

“Well, you won’t be able to vocalize your assent to Jensen becoming your husband, and posthumously knighted men are not the same as dukes or earls or barons. There will be quite the opposition if you try to marry my son in the traditional manner.”

“So,” the queen continued as she rose to move towards the door, “I think that the best course of action would be elopement. Don’t you?”

Shock rippled across Jared’s body and he stared at her face. Surely she was jesting with him.

“Oh, Jared. Truly, you will have to learn much about politics,” she said with a distinctly mothering tone. “I will send somebody for you tonight. Make certain when you give into your vows that you give your whole heart, else breaking your bond with the tree and transferring it to my son will become quite a bit more difficult.”

“My queen,” Jared tried to say.

“Do not fret over it,” she ordered. “Do as you are told and all will be well. But it must be done soon before my husband’s court and their foolish human notions become involved.”

Her hand reached for the latch on Jared’s door, and he found his large hand wrapping around her wrist to stay her movement. It was inappropriate, possibly treasonous to touch his queen in such a manner, but Jared cared not.

“Jensen?” his lips caressed the word against his volition, savoring it even as he meant to ask a question.

“Loves you,” she answered, slipping her hand form his and turning to cradle it between her palms. “He will be the happiest of men to wed you. Do not worry over his affections or this being an arrangement that he does not wish for with his entire being.”

“Truly?” Jared tried to ignore the bubble of happiness that rose inside him as he mouthed the word.

“Truly,” she confirmed. “Now rest up. You will have a long night ahead of you.”


End file.
